Reviews

Considering that movie was made in the 1962, and that the overarching theme was about Race, I cannot but only take my hat off for this movie. The acting is different from how it's like today, but Gregory Peck's acting was strangely reminiscent to how Amitabh Bacchan played the role of a lawyer defending a rape victim in 'Pink'.

This is a movie based on a book I have read a few times over the years, and even if I had always imagined and 'played' the movie in Kodachrome inside my head, I do not feel disappointed by how the characters were played.

Of course, this movie does not do justice to the amount of details present in the movie, but it still - nearly 60 years later - made a 30 year old man, cry twice.

I had this feeling that if it was made available on Netflix, then it should be fecal matter, especially for a movie which had just been released. And boy oh boy, I was not wrong at all.

It's boring to the point that it had me close my eyes thrice, and that was in less than 40 minutes of watching.

The movie has been made to feel like a narration of a folklore, and is filled with imageries which goes beyond the literal narrative. It seems like a revised story from Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber', as much as it compares to the excellent and authentic 'Tumbbad'. However, I believe that many would not appreciate this movie as much as someone with a literary/social science background would do.

There had to be an abandoned building, and it's always better if the place was sacrilege-d by a serial criminal; there had to be an othering of the beliefs of a people, who in this case happen to be Latin people, whose belief were basically reduced to being a flawed version of Christianity, as it mingled with their indigenous 'evil' religion.There had to be a group of young white people, always on Spring Break, with an inner sexual tension. There had to be a cast made of hot, and stupid people.

I mean, come'on.

I did watch it till the end though, but I was not impressed.

I really like how they merged fantasy and reality throughout, even if the climax feels like a huge F-up.

But the arterial lifeline of this movie is a deja-vu adventure: good people find a weapon which can be used to destroy humanity, and they save the world - so lots of cliches in it.

The writer probably masqueraded the lack of originality through this interweaving of genres; I mean, we do not expect to see a fairy tale cum prophetic story happening in the middle of a cop and gang fight, in the inner city! However, there is a poignant subtext: one which has a lot to do with Class and Race.

However, this movie lacked in comedic punch, and there were moments which were engineered to sound funny, but which were embarrassingly not funny. In contrast, the dialogues for the cop parts felt genuine.

I believe that they could have worked on the pace of this movie, as what started as a little bit slow, suddenly accelerated, to finish with anti-climactic halt.

I think Will Smith, who acted a little bit too much, as he did in his previous movies, did not do that bad. While Orcs are supposedly dumber in this movie, I preferred the character of his co-partner, and his acting better. However, a 'Serenity' cum 'Fifth Element' female lead, whose character felt like it was written while drunk was extremely disappointing.

Barely entertaining, not that funny: meh.

It feels like that this movie tried so hard to be on par with the excellent 'Noroi'. Koji Shiraishi, wanted to exploit Cthulian horror again, but he really ended up with a 'wannabe-Noroi'.

Adding a K-pop protagonist, and reducing the horror to worms, which this time are visible, not ectoplasmic, and tangible, extinguishes the scariness of this movie, unlike the lurking Lovecraftian entities in 'Noroi' and 'Occult', the 'bakemono' is now material.

However, despite the tangibility of the demonic entity in this movie, I like - which I hope is true - the disparity of the techniques used to show both human and demonic subjects.

I believe that this deliberate use of what-is-being-criticized-for-being-bad-special-effects, actually serves a purpose. This being that it sets a contrast in between what is real and preternatural.

This out-of-placeness of the supernatural object allows the mind to strongly reject their presence in the setting, which is why I feel, people were reacting so vehemently against the CGIs used in both 'Occult' and 'Cult'.

Nonetheless, the self-plagiarism feeling was very off-putting: the theme, the tone, the characters, the direction, the colouring and lighting effect, hell even the SCORE felt borrowed, from his previous movie.

It sucks that Koji could not exploit the 'Kami' myths/stories/legends/folklore which his country so abundantly offers.

This movie is about time travel, happening in two dystopian societies (one further in the future), where the main character who's actually played by two actors, are the same person but from different times in time.

So there is nothing really novel about the theme: we have seen time travel or time dilation in different movies recently, but this one does not even reach the ankle of the brilliant 'Predestination'.

In this sense, despite the recurrence of Time Travel as a motif in movies, the scaffolding of any movie REMAINS the plot, which feels REALLY weak in this movie.

There is a certain lassitude with the way the movie moves forward, and the important elements do not really cohere well. Especially with a climax which feels alien to at least three-quarter of the movie.

I was obviously not impressed by this movie, but I might have been expecting too much out of it, especially from its good IMDB rating, which is ironic to heavy, listless deroulement of this movie.

You will know what is going to happen in this movie, and this is how so predictable it is. In addition, there are gaping holes everywhere: Why even bother adding Beatrix; why even go to China; why even classify the rainmaker as undefinable when he IS not; why is the mob stupid at one time, and then super powerful, and then super weak - not just plot blunders, but enerving sinkholes.

Similarly, the acting was meh. Bruce Willis played himself in Die Hard. Levitt aided with some cosmetics looked funny, and both did not feel one with their characters.

Did the Director force Levitt to look like someone from Viper Planet. It felt as awkward as seeing Kidman playing Virginia Woolf. It's not about the appearance, it's about how much you can enter the skin of a character. Meryl Streep in 'Mamma Mia' and 'The Devil Wears Prada', are examples of how much metamorphosis actually relies on acting abilities.

Talking of change: it did not feel like there was a huge change in between how the world was in the movie's Present Time, in contrast to the Future. I mean, what is the difference in between how we lived in 1980s compared to how we do in 2010s - this is your answer.

I will cut short, but the only good thing I found in this movie was the score, especially, 'Powerful Love' by Chuck and Mac - A GEM!

While I was not transfixed, the element of mystery was buoyed to the very end in this movie; however, the climactic effect was reduced by a not so spectacular climax.

However, the elements of a good thriller are there. You are led to believe in a chase, in the chase of something or someone specific when there wasn't really a chase to begin with.

Furthermore, the lack of melodrama and a pernicious romantic element only served to accentuate the tension which starts building up from the very start.

In this manner, this movie is truly about how one part leads to another, and another to many others. There is an unfurling which occurs. It is a pointillist painting where you see the dots but are not able to connect the whole plot until much later in the movie.

However, the evolving complexity of this enigma gets muddled a bit by a climax which feels rushed, and not in coherence with the entire convoluting enigma being built in the movie.

The actors were good, and each character felt in place in this chessboard, even if Rahmaan who plays the main character occupied a large but weighty presence throughout the movie. While Rahmaan acts as a narrator in this movie, I also feel like he was overexposed to the point of saturation. The other characters left a poignant mark, but their importance in the plot is somewhat eclipsed by their minute presence.

In another manner, it could also be said that their momentaneous presence kept the audience at bay, and probably a little bit away from suspicion, in which case, I have to admit, matches the ending of this movie.

Then, the mood, tone and visuals in this movie fused well with the heavy tension being built up. It was evenly grim throughout and the sound score was neat, playing well in augmenting the suspense.

This movie is a short watch, but I don't think it's going to be something I would watch again, albeit it did not felt like time lost.

It was getting so boring that I stopped before midway, and read the whole story on Wikipedia.

Things I didn't like in this movie:

1) They have to choose in between making a Thriller, or a Romantic movie. Intermingling both of them creates an unnecessary incongruence.

2) Not only it's too lengthy, but there is hardly any cohesion in between these two themes. You go from chasing a serial killer to love story to chasing again then back to lovey dovey, and it felt too much BS to take in.

3) If you want to create a fictitious police division acting on nabbing a serial killer, you could have had made it a little bit more sophisticated. The actions of CBI Anjali were just too stupid for movie-watchers like myself to think of this as a serious cat-and-mouse game.

A coming of age Bollywood movie which remains fresh and refreshing even 11 years later.

I love the youthfulness of the crew, and it was not just camera work. Imran Khan and Genelia D'Souza were both pretty young when they were shooting for this movie, and this vitality is in phase with the theme of this movie.

Two best friends ultimately finding that they are in love with each other - of course, this is an overused motif, and a story we have heard way too many times, but the beauty lies in the narration, and it felt good watching this story unfurl.

It's one of those movies where everything seems to happen in a bubble of fantasy, unaffected by whatever bad thing is happening in the outside - so in a way, this is a bad thing. But who wants a dose of realism when you just want to feel nice, and entertained?

The songs were of great, and I particularly love the Jazzy Intro, which made me feel transported to a really nice place.

As I mentioned above, the acting was fine, as it felt genuine. But this is no academy quality movie - this is basically something you would want to watch when you want to lighten your mood or something.

The movie felt good. It kept me on edge for a while, even if the songs were just unnecessary, but this is Bollywood, so.

It was quite fast paced but it did not really build the required tension, one which felt as ALIVE as an actual human heart beating in your hands, in 'The Chaser', but then, I should not be comparing these two. Nonetheless, it was still way better than most movies at keeping the tension alive.

However, I was a little bit disappointed by the climax, which felt incongruous to the whole story. Not only the antagonist's character was hardly developed, but the immediate and intense spotlight he/she receives at the end, felt a little bit outward to the whole drama. It felt like they just picked someone to play the villain because they had to wind up the movie fast.

Nonetheless, I like the originality of the story, which I feel beats most Hollywood horror productions. You don't really know what's actually haunted until you watch the movie. But this is not the only turning point you would come face-to-face while watching this movie AND, these unexpected plot twists are always welcomed.

The actors did a fine job even I think that there should/could have been more work done on them. It feels like the whole movie rests on the shoulders of one single protagonist, with the other people just being props.

What is the use of having so many people acting, when their actions are reduced to the subsequent denouement grasped only by the actor. How come the rest of the folks are so oblivious to the happenings, or the change in Madhavan's character. In this manner, the frailty and unimportance of their presence in the movie, diminishes the whole delivery of this movie.

Furthermore, it feels like that certain keys to the unfolding of the mystery, were literally being spoon-fed to the viewers. An overzealous emphasis on some details, albeit pertinent to unravelling the secret, abrupts the tempo of the movie.

Moreover, I wish there were finer editing to make this movie shorter. While it's perfectly acceptable to have songs even in a Bollywood Horror movie, I feel like they should start moving away from this, especially when the songs are crappy as hell!

In this line, I feel like if the songs were nice, they would have uplifted the whole value of this film. Songs in serious movies such as 'Fanaa', or 'Dil Se', both about Terrorism, were literally the pearly whites which shone light within the movies they were encrusted.

Similarly, some parts of the movie felt a little bit overstretched. This is in the same line as the 'force-feeding' part. It does make some of us feel like stupid people, to whom the 'joke' needs to be explained. But I also understand why the moviemaker would be reticent to make these parts shorter too.

I guess if this movie was in any way, more intelligible, it would not have attracted as many cinema-goers. Unfortunate, but true.

Differently, I like the central Indianism of this movie: it feels desi, it feels like something we could experience; we could identify someone or ourselves with the 'Ma', 'Bhaiya', or even the 'creep', but there was hardly any 'divine' intervention in this movie, unlike other horror productions, where the interference of the godly is quintessential to the defeat of evil.

I do not know what to make of this distancing from religious figures, but this feels like giving the power back to people. Of course, this by itself is a very subjective opinion, but also weird in the sense that I shirk away from the supernatural good, in order to beat the supernatural bad. But this is a discussion beyond the scope of this review.

I love the fact this was not an unoriginal monster, ghost or haunted house movie, because these really feel like as if Indians are copying from Occidental movies.

I recently read that someone big in the Industry was about to make a Ghost Ship movie - don't we already know where we had first seen this, or how it's going to be. There's going to be an item song, probably some very good looking or famous actors, but all of these to compensate for the lack of spinal originality.

However, this movie has succeeded into tapping from the giganormous pool of the ancient culture, history and mythology India has to offer. I am floored by the originality of the script and how it feels at home, like as if we have succeeded in creating our desi monster AT LAST!

The physical settings: the lost cursed village in contrast to Colonial Pune.

Ingenuous temporal location as this position of the plot in that particular time beautifully enhances the story. The actors were brilliant: convincing, natural, and authentic. The pace was comfortable, balanced and soft.

This is not just another story where they have to defeat or kill or exorcise something. This feels like the stories, our Dadis or Nanis must have told us when we were kids, about things hidden, people disappeared, or new wealth discovered; of curses and boons, of gods, and secret shrines, stories that never really reveal their mysteries, keeping the mind alert because of the unresolved questions which pop at their ends.

While this movie packed tons, I feel like it wasn't that scary for me but this is probably because I have watched way too many horror flicks, even if the eerie feeling from this movie has stayed with me - which in my opinion is a GOOD thing for a movie to make you feel.

I admit that this was an original production but it felt like more like of tale you could hear from someone really old living in a remote village, than a movie.

It felt like a story within a story, narrated in such a way to remain concise, leaving the smooth transition. Of course, the movie was not entirely so mechanical, but I would have preferred if they had re-worked certain parts of the movie which felt overplayed, and then on filling the gaps in the plot.

Any specific example would be spoilers - and I don't want that.

Then the way the devil is portrayed in the movie, felt so ridiculous - albeit most probably true to folklore - that it didn't make me twinge the slightest: it really started feeling more comical than scary from that point onwards. I feel like this movie might appeal to a very specific type of crowd.

As I said, it was going on pretty well until the devil made its apparition - a devil who's basically more of a wimp than anything else. I also admit that the fact that I was expecting something more horrific from this devil, which obviously did not happen, had me bummed out, but all in all, I love the physical and time settings of the movie: it was eerie, dark, and the actors played it in a way that it felt like they were true to the people of that time.